Episode 5 – Our Statement and More on President Trump’s Speech at HHS

Topics: Our Statement and More on President Trump’s Speech at Health & Human Services

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EPISODE 05

In Episode 05 we offer our official statement on President Trump’s speech at Health & Human Services last week:

“Throughout 2018, Patients Rising Now has supported — with both comments and ideas — the administration’s efforts to bring overdue reform to the health care system, particularly for patients with serious illness and chronic disease. We believe that solid progress is both at hand and ahead.

“Given that positive precedent, we have serious reservations about the most recent announcements related to drug pricing — not because they go too far, but because they may not go any distance at all in addressing what truly ails the system.

“This is especially problematic due to the inconsistent way that the issue of global pricing is being addressed. We share widespread concerns that this administration has focused on about the ways developed countries apply strict price controls to American medicine, thereby compelling this nation to subsidize the world. The administration has focused new attention on this problem and we hope they go further. Given that, we are very puzzled by the suggested approach that would link American medicines to the controlled pricing of European and other countries. Rather than fix one problem, this approach will more likely create two: no end in sight to freeloading around the world and the many threats to patient access that price controls will bring institutionalized here in America.”

Today we take a deeper dive into what price controls really mean for American patients and why we believe they simply will not work. We go into a recent example of market forces at work, with Amgen lowering the price of their cholesterol drug Repatha significantly. Market forces at work with a more robust biosimilars market and generic market will bring that about much more naturally than setting prices controls that could impede access and stifle innovation.

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